Insurance Industry

Don't get in a traffic accident in a tiny Toyota Yaris. It has the most injuries per crash of any vehicle, according to an insurance industry study. The Highway Loss Data Institute looked at insurance data for model year 2009 through 2011 vehicles and found Yaris occupants filed personal injury claims 28.5 times for every 1,000 of the vehicles the industry insured. That's more than any other vehicle on the road and compares to the Porsche 911, which had the best rate -- only 4.5 injury claims for every 1,000 of the fancy sports car. PHOTOS: Risky rides?

One of the benefits of the Affordable Care Act that President Obama often touts is the limit it places on medical bills: no more than $6,350 annually per insured individual or $12,700 per family. The insurance industry's idea of an "out-of-pocket maximum," however, doesn't deliver on the promise implicit in its name, as I learned when my insurer told me I might owe half of a $54,000 ambulance bill. My coverage from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois is exempt from the new limits because it predates the ACA, but it still has annual spending caps.

Paying out billions of dollars here and billions of dollars there has made the global insurance industry a believer in climate change, according to a new study that shows insurance companies are staunch advocates for reducing carbon emissions and minimizing the risk posed by increasingly severe weather events. “Climate change stands as a stress test for insurance, the world's largest industry with U.S. $4.6 trillion in revenues, 7% of the global economy,” writes Evan Mills , a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the UC Berkeley campus.

Re "Trying to sell college students on Obamacare," Dec. 15 Instead of trying to sell college students on Obamacare, it would be better to convert it into a universal healthcare plan, a system that other countries have. The insurance industry siphons off some of the money we spend on healthcare. Eliminate that unnecessary burden and we could afford to provide better healthcare for all. Why do we need the insurance industry as a middleman to muddy the waters? Tom Press Los Angeles ALSO: Letters: Park and ride Letters: Making the bullet train fly Letters: Collecting DNA can solve crimes

What's most impressive about our highly dysfunctional heathcare system is that we're always finding clever new ways to make it worse. The latest such move comes on the Medicare front, where lawmakers had been trying to rein in costs by modestly lowering the amount that large insurers would be paid for managing Medicare Advantage plans, which are a private-sector version of the government program. The Obama administration had proposed a 2.3% reduction in payment for the plans, arguing that insurers were making plenty of profit as it was. But after the insurance industry unleashed its lobbyists and started throwing its considerable political muscle around, it ended up not with a pay cut from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, but a 3.3% increase . I have no idea what the correct reimbursement rate should be. But I do know that, as the baby boomers age, Medicare represents a cash cow for insurers with Medicare Advantage plans.

Honda, Subaru and Volvo are making strides protecting the occupants of their cars, while big manufacturers such as General Motors are lagging behind, the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety said Thursday as it gave 22 vehicles its top safety rating. Between its Honda and Acura lines, Honda landed six of the top spots. To earn the “Top Safety Pick Plus” endorsement, vehicles had to rate as good on four crash tests and have good or acceptable performance on a small overlap crash -- where the front corner of a car hits an object.

The insurance industry, stepping up its support for the no-fault auto insurance bill backed by Gov. Pete Wilson and the Consumers Union, plans to spend $1.2 million on advertising to increase pressure on four key state senators to vote for the measure at a legislative hearing scheduled for this month. "In a state as big and diverse as California, that's actually a very small amount," said Robert Gore, spokesman for the Assn. of California Insurance Companies, on Thursday.

I find it very disturbing that [Robert T.] Heineman (Letters, June 21) fails to mention that he is a Farmers' Insurance agent. However, his fatal flaw is the same as most of the insurance industry. He fails to mention over how many years the $3 billion in earthquake premiums were collected. Heineman is forthright in mentioning the industry has paid out $20 billion over 25 years. I have read many reports from insurance companies and the insurance industry which state they are losing money.

Don Stewart, 70, insurance industry advocate and organizer who fought to extend coverage to minorities. Stewart began his career as an agent for Farmer's Insurance before founding his own agency in Pasadena in 1963. He developed that into the American Agents Alliance, a statewide cooperative of independent agents that lobbies on political and regulatory issues affecting the insurance industry.

Earnings rebounded in 1986 for the nation's property-casualty insurance industry as higher insurance prices buoyed a recovery from steep losses the previous two years, an insurance trade group said Monday. The Insurance Information Institute also said the sharp rise in liability insurance rates, which largely were responsible for the profit turnaround, should cool a bit and liability insurance could become more readily available. Quoting preliminary figures compiled by A. M. Best Co.

Honda, Subaru and Volvo are making strides protecting the occupants of their cars, while big manufacturers such as General Motors are lagging behind, the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety said Thursday as it gave 22 vehicles its top safety rating. Between its Honda and Acura lines, Honda landed six of the top spots. To earn the “Top Safety Pick Plus” endorsement, vehicles had to rate as good on four crash tests and have good or acceptable performance on a small overlap crash -- where the front corner of a car hits an object.

Step forward, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)! You've won the prize for cynical attacks on Obamacare. In fact, keep the trophy -- you've retired it! We're talking, of course, about your proposal to repeal the provisions of the Affordable Care Act providing for "risk corridors. " As we explained last month , risk corridors are a feature of the law designed to protect insurers that end up with a disproportionate share of sicker, costlier customers. In effect, they get a subsidy from the government to cover those patients; the law also requires firms that land more than their share of healthy, inexpensive patients to rebate some premium dollars back to the government.

"We didn't do a good enough job in terms of how we crafted the law," an apologetic President Obama said this month, shortly after millions of Americans got notices from their health insurance companies that their current policies were going to be canceled because the policies didn't comply with the minimum standards of the Affordable Care Act. Worse, the federal website where people were supposed to be able to buy replacement coverage was still barely...

Consumer Reports dumped some its favorite vehicles -- Toyota's Camry, RAV4 and Prius V -- from its list of recommended cars Monday because the vehicles scored poorly in an insurance industry crash test. The influential magazine said it looked at the results of what is known as the small overlap crash test in making the decision to revoke its endorsement for the vehicles. The Camry is the bestselling passenger car in the United States, and the RAV4 is one of the most popular compact sport utilities.

California cities lead the list of the nation's hot spots for auto theft. Eight of the top 10 metropolitan areas for car theft are in California, with Modesto ranking as the worst in the nation, according to an analysis of 2012 FBI crime data by the National Insurance Crime Bureau. Fresno was the second worst nationally, followed by Bakersfield and then Stockton. Yakima, Wash., was fifth. Spokane, another Washington city, was the only other city not in California to break into the top 10 list, ranking ninth.

Desiree Tibbets' mother died in 1995. Her father passed away four years later. Yet Tibbets, 39, never knew -- and was never informed by her parents' life insurer, Prudential -- that she was the sole beneficiary for their policies. "This is really upsetting," the Ontario resident said. "I would have thought they had an obligation to get the money to me. " At the very least, Prudential was required by California law to hand over the money to state officials three years after Tibbets' parents' account was deemed inactive.

Re "New Law Aids Victims of Terrorism," Nov. 27: President Bush signed the terror insurance bill, saying that "should terrorists strike America again, we have a system in place to address financial losses and get our economy back on its feet as quickly as possible." This would ensure that insurance companies and real estate developers do not suffer overwhelming financial losses in a catastrophic terror event. Would that he sign a similar bill for the more than 40 million Americans who do not have health insurance, who may suffer overwhelming medical bills in a catastrophic event and who do not have a system in place to address their financial losses.

"Don't look back; something may be gaining on you," said Satchel Paige, the great pitcher and aphorist--and his advice holds today for worriers about U.S. insurance and other financial companies. Sure, the news is ominous. Insurance regulators in more than a dozen states have asked for a review of First Executive Corp.'s junk bond portfolio to determine whether the firm's insurance subsidiary, Executive Life, can continue meeting its obligations to policyholders.

What's most impressive about our highly dysfunctional heathcare system is that we're always finding clever new ways to make it worse. The latest such move comes on the Medicare front, where lawmakers had been trying to rein in costs by modestly lowering the amount that large insurers would be paid for managing Medicare Advantage plans, which are a private-sector version of the government program. The Obama administration had proposed a 2.3% reduction in payment for the plans, arguing that insurers were making plenty of profit as it was. But after the insurance industry unleashed its lobbyists and started throwing its considerable political muscle around, it ended up not with a pay cut from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, but a 3.3% increase . I have no idea what the correct reimbursement rate should be. But I do know that, as the baby boomers age, Medicare represents a cash cow for insurers with Medicare Advantage plans.

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones lashed out Tuesday at another double-digit rate hike for thousands of small businesses getting their health insurance from industry giant Anthem Blue Cross. But this time Jones got some help from a surprising source. He has quietly tapped Consumer Watchdog, his political ally and the state's most outspoken industry critic, to help review health insurance rate increases under a one-year contract worth as much as $88,000. The insurance industry expressed dismay that the state enlisted its longtime nemesis to help review rate increases, and some experts questioned whether it's necessary to further antagonize insurers at a time when state officials are trying to work closely with the industry to implement a massive healthcare expansion.